I've now explained enough to introduce the last component you need to write practical programs that interact with the outside world
stdout appears behind me
I used to believe stdout was important because you need it to see results in actual programming, but the thing is - these comics are not following normal code. We can visually see any value I hold in my hands- we don't need to go into how to expose these values to the outside world until later.
I can make a comment in the early chapters, in which I sort of explain the structure of the book and the environment, how if the user wants to follow along, they can skip ahead to take a glimpse of the part where I get the print function, and then insert a print(thing) for any thing they want to see at a point in execution.
Also, stdin input appears on it (in a different color?) so things are less confusing
Let's also talk input
You often don't need input when you can just change your code, but while we're here, we might as well.
Stdin
Standard in is a typewriter. It has parts that are controlled by the io library functions, like an arm that eats the paper you've typed and puts it into work-space.
Trello Cards and Comments from "Basic I/O" List
Let's talk output
stdout appears behind me
Let's also talk input
Stdin